Synopses & Reviews
On New Year's Eve 1972, following eighteen magnificent seasons in the major leagues, Roberto Clemente died a hero's death, killed in a plane crash as he attempted to deliver food and medical supplies to Nicaragua after a devastating earthquake. David Maraniss now brings the great baseball player brilliantly back to life in
Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, a book destined to become a modern classic. Much like his acclaimed biography of Vince Lombardi,
When Pride Still Mattered, Maraniss uses his narrative sweep and meticulous detail to capture the myth and a real man.
Anyone who saw Clemente, as he played with a beautiful fury, will never forget him. He was a work of art in a game too often defined by statistics. During his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, he won four batting titles and led his team to championships in 1960 and 1971, getting a hit in all fourteen World Series games in which he played. His career ended with three-thousand hits, the magical three-thousandth coming in his final at-bat, and he and the immortal Lou Gehrig are the only players to have the five-year waiting period waived so they could be enshrined in the Hall of Fame immediately after their deaths.
There is delightful baseball here, including thrilling accounts of the two World Series victories of Clemente's underdog Pittsburgh Pirates, but this is far more than just another baseball book. Roberto Clemente was that rare athlete who rose above sports to become a symbol of larger themes. Born near the canebrakes of rural Carolina, Puerto Rico, on August 18, 1934, at a time when there were no blacks or Puerto Ricans playing organized ball in the United States, Clemente went on to become the greatest Latino player in the major leagues. He was, in a sense, the Jackie Robinson of the Spanish-speaking world, a ballplayer of determination, grace, and dignity who paved the way and set the highest standard for waves of Latino players who followed in later generations and who now dominate the game.
The Clemente that Maraniss evokes was an idiosyncratic character who, unlike so many modern athletes, insisted that his responsibilities extended beyond the playing field. In his final years, his motto was that if you have a chance to help others and fail to do so, you are wasting your time on this earth. Here, in the final chapters, after capturing Clemente's life and times, Maraniss retraces his final days, from the earthquake to the accident, using newly uncovered documents to reveal the corruption and negligence that led the unwitting hero on a mission of mercy toward his untimely death as an uninspected, overloaded plane plunged into the sea.
Review
"An astonishingly good book.... A triumph, a classic American biography."
-- Robert W. Creamer, The Washington Post Book World
Review
"Forges a near-perfect synthesis of fine writing and fascinating material. May be the best sports biography ever published."
-- Ron Fimrite, Sports Illustrated
Synopsis
El ltimo d a de 1972, despu s de dieciocho magn ficas temporadas en las grandes ligas, Roberto Clemente muri como un h roe al estrellarse el avi n en que llevaba alimentos y suministros m dicos a Nicaragua luego de un devastador terremoto.
Cualquiera que vio jugar a Clemente, nunca podr a olvidarlo: era una obra de arte en un juego que con demasiada frecuencia se define por las estad sticas. Durante su carrera con los Piratas de Pittsburg, gan cuatro t tulos de bateo y llev a su equipo a los campeonatos de 1960 y 1971. Su carrera concluy con tres mil hits, y l y Lou Gehrig son los nicos jugadores en la historia del b isbol cuya consagraci n en el Pabell n de la Fama no tom en cuenta los tradicionales cinco a os de espera.
Pero Roberto Clemente fue un atleta singular que transcendi el mbito de los deportes para convertirse en un s mbolo de causas mayores. Nacido en Carolina, Puerto Rico, en 1934, una poca cuando no hab a negros ni puertorrique os en el b isbol profesional de Estados Unidos, Clemente llegar a a ser uno de los peloteros m s notables de las grandes ligas; un jugador que se destac por su determinaci n, su elegancia y su dignidad, y que abri el camino para muchos latinos de generaciones posteriores que ahora brillan en ese deporte.
Synopsis
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of When Pride Still Mattered comes a book destined to become a modern classic--a full-scale biography of great baseball player and humanitarian Roberto Clemente, who lived, played, and died with enduring passion and grace. of photos.
About the Author
Born in Detroit, David Maraniss is an associate editor at andlt;Iandgt;The Washington Postandlt;/Iandgt;. Maraniss is a Pulitzer Prizeandndash;winning journalist and bestselling author of andlt;Iandgt;First in His Class: A Biography of Bill Clintonandlt;/Iandgt;; andlt;Iandgt;Rome 1960: The Olympics that Stirred the World;andlt;/Iandgt; andlt;Iandgt;Barack Obama: The Storyandlt;/Iandgt;; andlt;Iandgt;Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseballandrsquo;s Last Heroandlt;/Iandgt;; andlt;Iandgt;They Marched into Sunlight: War and Peace, Vietnam and America, October 1967andlt;/Iandgt;; andandlt;Iandgt; When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of Vince Lombardiandlt;/Iandgt;, which was hailed by andlt;Iandgt;Sports Illustratedandlt;/Iandgt; as andldquo;maybe the best sports biography ever published.andrdquo; He lives in Washington, DC and Madison, Wisconsin.